So clearly, the converse of that would be that time all but stops when you’re doing something decidedly UN-fun.

Like running on a treadmill.

OH. EM. GEE. Time has never moved so slowly in my LIFE.

As my oh-so-brilliant Facebook friends have already seen, during the lifetime that was my tready time yesterday, I came up with the following formula:

30 minutes of Modern Family (aka the most hilarious show ever, and I say that as a Scrubs fan.) = 30 seconds.
30 minutes of driving = 30 minutes.
30 minutes on the treadmill = 30,000,000,000 hours.

Those are exact figures, by the way.

I am just so aware of every second spent running. In general, when you think of a span of time like 2 minutes, it’s nothing. Passes in the blink of an eye, even if you’re not doing something particularly enjoyable. Not so if you’re spending those 2 minutes huffing and puffing like a fool while the other three lunchtime work-outers (all men, by the way) politely avert their eyes.

It wasn’t good. My legs felt like lead and I spent almost the entire time just looking at the elapsed time on the machine (I used to cover the dashboard with a towel so I wouldn’t look at that stuff the whole time, but all that did was build the anticipation until I checked anyway, and then was crushed when I saw I had only gone like .2 miles, haha.) At one point I asked myself, “Why do my legs feel so heavy?” before remembering that, oh yeah, I’m still 30 pounds overweight. Womp womp.

Old picture. Same outfit.

Oh well, at least I did it! Thanks to all of your encouragement about my 5 miler freakout yesterday, I actually went to the gym. And at this point, that’s really all that matters. I roughly followed your advice to run for a few minutes and then walk for a minute, although the ratios got a lot closer the longer I was on there (5:1, 4:2, 3:2… you get the idea.) And after all that work, it ended up being slightly over 2 torturous miles. Nothing to brag about, I know, but since it’s basically like I’m starting from scratch, I’ll take it.

That, along with the intense amount of stuff I bought at Trader Joe’s yesterday (seriously, like a bazillion things for $50. Yet another reason why I love TJ’s.) means that the plan is off to a good start.

And to ensure that this post ends with something good as well, I invite you to enjoy:

Happy Friday, folks! It’s the last workday of the week (for us office-job peeps, anyway!) and I’m celebrating with the publishment (is that a word? Eh, I’m rolling with it anyway) of the Q&A page that I mentioned a couple days ago. I took (most) of the questions that you guys asked me and answered them in a separate page that you can access in the navigation bar at the top of the blog. Huzzah! You all had great questions, so if there are additional things you’d like to know, please feel free to ask! I especially think it will be fun to answer any “favorites” questions you might have, provided anyone has any actual interest in knowing that kind of stuff. Man, blogging really is for the narcissistic, eh?

Not that *I* fit that bill or anything, of course! Bahahaha.

So as I mentioned yesterday, this week has been keeping me BUSY. Not that I’m complaining, because it’s all been a total blast, but sometimes you just need an evening where nothing’s scheduled, nothing’s planned, and you don’t have anybody to meet. I got my wish last night! I kicked off the afternoon with my third laser hair removal session (after just the second session I already noticed a HUGE difference, btw) and then spent the rest of the post-work day just, well, bumming around. I’m not supposed to work out or get super sweaty right after I get zapped, so a couple episodes of Sex & the City got watched, I spent some quality time with the puppers, and then headed down to la cocina to make dinner (last night was also the first night all week I cooked a real dinner for myself — eep!)

I finally got broccoli slaw from Trader Joe’s! And it played an integral role in the game of pantry roulette that was my dinner last night. I sauteed some red onion in olive oil, then added two chopped chicken sausage links:

Before adding the slaw to the mix:

And while that was softening, I chopped up two apples as well, which tasted crisp and fresh in the dish. Mmmm.

All together now!

I just seasoned the dish with some salt and pepper, but it was some superawesomespecial salt that I was psyched to try out:

I saw this smoked sea salt on someone’s blog recently (although I can’t remember whose – fail!) and knew I had to pick up a grinder the next time I was at TJ’s. The second you start grinding, it just EXUDES smokiness. I could barely believe it! I’m not sure I used enough of it to really get the smokiness to poke through the other flavor profiles, but you can bet I’ll be experimenting with this way more.

A weird little concoction? Possibly. But it was delectable, it didn’t upset my stomach (score!), and was tres, tres healthy on top of all that. Win-win-win.

Do you ever buy something from the grocery store because it seems cool, even if you’re not exactly sure how to use it? I do this all the time. It’s fun to figure it out in the kitchen! What would you do with smoked sea salt? I’m thinking an obvious choice would be to season some grillin’ stuffs with it, since we don’t have an actual smoker it might give grilled meats and veggies some of that amazing flavor without the muss.

And ALL of that (which really is quite a lot!) for less than $80! I. Love. Trader. Joe’s. After doing my happy-pantry-dance, I got to enjoy this view for the next hour or so:

BAHAHA. Love you, Reema!

We went to Sweetwater Tavern, where I indulged just a little much. But if you saw my daily eats from last night, you can kind of tell I had adjusted my day to account for eating out. I just didn’t factor in that I would desperately be needing one of these by the end of the day:

Hehe. I drank half of their prickly pear frozen marg (which was more than enough for me — is it possible my alcohol tolerance is still in Boulder?) before Reema graciously helped me out.

I got crab cakes! They were about one-tenth the size of the gargantuan crab cakes I had in Baltimore, but unlike those, Sweetwater’s have like, zero breading on the inside, so you know you’re getting your money’s worth.

I swapped out the regular fries that came with it for sweet ‘tater ones. Plus cole slaw. Ate it all. Totally delicious, totally worth it.

What’s your favorite going-out-to-eat indulgence?

Sushi’s kind of a no-brainer for me, so I don’t really count it as an answer to this question, haha. So I guess I would say that I love me some crab cakes, and seafood in general will always be my choice. That section of the menu is always the first to jump out at me, hehe. I imagine that most men would probably be a pretty easy guess: STEAK!

Hi! I'm Gretchen: 31 years old, Whasian, and navigating life as a married mama to my toddler + one on the way, and fur-mom to my mini schnauzer, Daxter (RIP my best boy, Harry). I'm a hair dye enthusiast, dumpling connoisseur, and am obsessed with anything (everything!) Harry Potter. Thanks for stopping by!